The A.S. Council passed two resolutions on May 26 expressing its position on proposed plans to address the current budget crisis. The first criticizes many aspects of the compact agreement between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, UC President Robert C. Dynes and CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed, including the lack of student input in reaching the agreement, the possibility of decreased financial aid and cuts to outreach funding. The second supports keeping the firewall in the budget that currently separates undergraduate and graduate fees being used for return to financial aid.
Both resolutions passed by a vote of 20-0-3.
Vice President External Rigo Marquez, who submitted both resolutions, said that while the compact recognizes the efforts to address student fee increases, the process in creating the compact was problematic because no students were involved in the decision. He said that the University of California Student Association has also passed a similar resolution addressing the lack of input from students and state legislators.
“Leaving out students and leaving out other state legislators who have been part of the process really sets a precedent of the kind of relationship they want to have with UCSA and the state Legislature,” Marquez said.
The resolution states that the 14-percent undergraduate student fee increase — along with the possibility that the amount of money returned to financial aid would fall from the current 33 percent — would go against the California Master Plan for Higher Education. The resolution also states that the council is “disappointed in the neglect of student-initiated outreach,” which according to the compact, will be funded solely through UC funds, not state funds. The compact currently allocates $12 million for K-12 outreach programs to be divided within the UC system.
“There is fluctuation of financial aid that is problematic because you’re increasing tuition, but trying to cut financial aid,” Marquez said. “The compact also completely avoids discussion of student initiated outreach. [The current proposal] is 20 percent of [the current] budget that outreach programs work on.”
The resolution also calls for the UC Office of the President, the UC Board of Regents and other leaders to create a more “equitable, viable and beneficial solution” to address the current budget issues. The resolution will be sent to the governor’s office, UCOP, the UC Academic Senate and other appropriate organizations.
“I’m happy that A.S. has chosen to take a stance on the compact, and I think that it’s really important that access to education is preserved and fees aren’t raised,” said Eleanor Roosevelt College junior Harish Nandagopal, a member of Stop the Cuts Coalition at UCSD
The second resolution adopted by the council calls for the UC administration to maintain the firewall that allocates money returned from the graduate student fee increase to financial aid specifically for graduate students. The return-to-aid money from undergraduate fees goes specifically toward undergraduate financial aid.
According to Revelle Senior Senator Ted McCombs, who co-sponsored both resolutions, financial aid for graduate students is currently merit-based while financial aid for undergraduate students is based on financial need.
“Since these financial aids are very different from each other and have different goals, we want to keep the firewall the same so that graduate money doesn’t go to undergraduate financial aid, and undergraduate money doesn’t go to graduate financial aid,” McCombs said.
The resolution states that the current proposal to remove the firewall would put undergraduate and graduate systems in conflict with one another. The resolution also states that the council would reject any future budget proposals that increase undergraduate fees to lower graduate fees.
“Keeping the firewall protects undergraduates — to undo the firewall puts a lot of burden on the undergraduates who are usually most in need of financial aid,” Thurgood Marshall College Freshman Senator Allan Horowitz said. “It hurts them, and undergraduate money needs to stay with the undergraduate population.”
McCombs amended the resolution to reiterate that the council supports maintaining the return-to-aid amount at 33 percent of undergraduate fees, following former Thurgood Marshall College Student Council Chair Travis Silva’s request to address the issue.
“The compact gives the UC Board of Regents latitude to make that number between 20 percent to 33 percent,” Silva said. “The lower [the number is], the less financial aid will be available. What the council should be doing is to take this issue into consideration.”
